Levi backed up and fired a few quick shots with his bow, aiming for the ogre's flat, ugly head. He missed once and grazed it the second time, but the third arrow slammed firmly into its open mouth. That kept its attention away from his injured team, though it didn’t do much damage.
Essence scarabs swarmed at the downed duo, but Centoo was still able to slash them out of the air even with several of his lower legs hanging limply, and Skarm refused to stay down. Screeching furiously, the gremlin jumped onto Centoo’s head and laid about him with claws and horn. But there were too many scarabs in the air now for the duo to deal with them all, especially with Centoo’s mobility so severely hampered.
Levi downed one scarab with three fast slashes, but he couldn’t spare the time to finish the others before the ogre was upon him. The scarabs’ slowly paralyzing venom would be dangerous, but first he had to avoid being crushed into hamburger.
The ogre grabbed for Levi’s head with both hands, rushing straight at him with a stamina-empowered lunge.
For a heart-stopping moment Levi thought he was dead, the ogre too close to be evaded. Adrenaline surged through him as he drew frantically on his limited stamina. The world seemed to slow for a second as he ducked aside, and the ogre’s hands slammed together close enough to blow Levi’s hair back with the force of their impact.
In that split second while power still rushed through him, Levi whipped his sword upward and twisted to land the strike even as he dodged. Beast Bite snapped down, teeth digging deep into the ogre's hands to trap them together.
Confused, the ogre tried to pull its hands apart. Levi’s sword held them tight, and would continue to do so for as long as he pushed mana into it. Instead of freeing itself, the ogre made a confused swing that pulled Levi off his feet and into the air.
Disoriented only briefly, Levi swung himself with the motion, then released the Beast Bite’s grip, using the momentum of the ogre's flailing to launch himself away. He hit the wall hard, feet-first, bunched up immediately, and pushed off toward the ogre's unsuspecting back as it clenched its bleeding hands into fists.
A second Beast Bite let Levi latch into its shoulder. He clung to the sword with one hand and braced his feet against the ogre’s back while he drew his manabow. The ogre swung around wildly, trying to grab him, but Levi swayed with the motion and evaded its blind swings.
A scarab buzzed by, homing in on Levi, and he awkwardly swatted it away with the bow.
He had never practiced using a manabow with one hand, but he knew the theory of it. Gripping it by the center, he focused and shoved mana into it, then released mentally. It cost more mana and focus than drawing back the arrow by hand, but allowed him to hold onto the ogre with one hand while firing off Stone Shot into the back of the ogre's head at point-blank range. It still would take too long to overwhelm its health advantage, the bolts doing little against its vast pool, but Levi got off three quick shots before his mana fell too low to fire again.
Level 2+
(Essence Ogre)
Health 58%
The ogre slammed its fists against his back, twisting to dislodge him, but Levi was wise to the trick. He'd used this strategy against too many enemies to be caught off guard. He released the Beast Bite just as the ogre swung, dropped below its fist, then stabbed the sword in. He let his weight carry him down, still holding the sword angled inward to carve a deep gash across the ogre’s back before he dropped off entirely. The ogre opened its mouth in a silent roar. It flailed violently, drawing its foot with unnatural speed as it prepared to kick Levi into the wall or ceiling.
Flomper suddenly appeared, just in time to open a hole beneath the ogre's other foot. The softened stone solidified a moment later, but it was enough. That brief intervention threw the ogre off-balance and disrupted its attempted kick.
Thank you, Flomper, Levi thought fervently. The opening was just what he needed. He dove at the ogre's leg and stabbed deep into the back of its knee, then followed up with several quick slashes. It wouldn't be enough to cripple it, unfortunately, but its leg buckled, and it fell to one knee.
Stolen story; please report.
Level 2+
(Essence Ogre)
Health 51%
The ogre roared, looking around wildly, then snatched up a nearby Essence gremlin and threw it at Levi. Again with the throwing monsters at him. These dungeons really had a limited repertoire at low levels. He ducked aside, slashing out to deal a deep gash across the airborne gremlin's body as it flew past.
Then Gordon screamed. Levi spun. His ally had failed to keep ahead of the Essence.
Levi could see it already eating through Gordon’s shoes, as it began to contract and bunch up from its spread-out form, drawing in its bulk to envelop Gordon more fully.
In just the single panicked heartbeat while Levi watched, it crept steadily up Gordon’s ankles toward his shins, melting away his clothing and leaving corrosive burns across his exposed skin.
Levi cursed and threw himself at the Destruction Essence. Gordon tried to back away but misjudged the viscosity of the Essence. His feet remained trapped. Instead of escaping, he lost his balance and fell hard on his back, whimpering as his head cracked against the stone. The Essence greedily surged forward, eager to consume its victim at last, about to drown him completely.
He got there first, slicing the Essence rapidly, desperately carving away too-big pieces, anything to prevent it from fully subsuming Gordon. Flomper poked her head up beside Gordon’s face, looking between him and Levi with concern. Then she dove back into the floor, only to reemerge a moment later directly underneath the Essence. She clawed it frantically from the inside, her little teeth and claws moving in a blur. Levi couldn’t do anything to help her, but her mission was accomplished, since the Essence stopped its advance to glob up around this new victim.
He didn’t have time. A pair of the larger pieces spawned into kalvex, immediately rushing at them. Gordon was in no condition to run.
Levi grabbed a health restorative and quickly poured it into Gordon's mouth. Gordon swallowed convulsively, coughing, tears still running down his face.
“Cen!” Levi called, jumping up to fight off the kalvex before they could maul his downed companion.
The ogre stomped in their direction, one foot landing on the Essence. The blob shrank slightly, and Levi knew the ogre’s health was quickly regenerating from the contact with its progenitor, but at the moment he couldn’t worry about that.
Cen, who’d been fighting off gremlins and scarabs, did his best to rush to Levi’s side, but the countless small creatures who he’d been fighting came with him, stabbing and biting and harassing him, his health already far too close to empty for Levi's comfort. But he needed someone to run interference and protect Gordon long enough for the restorative to heal him while Levi took care of the pair of kalvex.
The thought flickered across his mind that this was going much more poorly than he’d anticipated. How had they won last time? Levels. They’d won because several of his minions had leveled mid-fight from killing all the powerful Essence creatures.
Time to switch tactics. At this rate of attrition, they’d all die before bringing the Essence down. “Everyone focus on killing as many as you can. Leave the big ones to me!”
He swallowed a stamina restorative, resigning himself to his limited health and no mana recovery for a time, but he needed to keep the ogre and kalvex busy until at least one of his minions could level. There were certainly enough high-power creatures around to get them there.
But first, he had to get the Essence itself out of the way. He pushed stamina hard, sprinted to the glob just finishing off Flomper, and started slicing.
More kalvex appeared as he chopped too-big pieces, but he didn't have time to waste being more precise. The ogre stomped, crushing the last of the main Essence and healing itself back to 70 percent as it swung its massive fist at Levi's stomach; this time he brought his sword up flat in front of himself and let it connect.
The force of the blow threw him into the air and away from the pack of kalvex closing in, slamming him into the far wall, but he was ready for it and crouched to absorb the impact, dropping to the ground with only a minimal dip in health.
Six kalvex, one ogre, maybe a dozen gremlins, and at least forty scarabs, but the Essence was fully dispersed now. No more surprises. They just had to survive long enough to finish them all off.
Centoo has reached level 4!
Centoo has 1 stat point available.
Levi grinned through his exhaustion as the centipede was restored to full health in a moment, power all but glowing as his injured limbs regained strength.
They could do this.
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